Un portal on escoltar i gaudir de l'art musical dels segles XVI, XVII, XVIII i XIX. Compartir la bellesa de la música és l'objectiu d'aquest espai i fer-ho donant a conèixer obres de compositors molt o poc coneguts és el mètode.
Italian composer. Although a popular composer whose works were performed
throughout Europe, virtually nothing is known about his life, save that
he worked alongside Giovanni Battista Sammartini in Milan around 1734.
His name suggests that he may have come from Briosco. He is identified
as a Milanese composer on some symphony manuscripts, and should be
considered representative of the Milanese symphonic school. Ten
symphonies are ascribed to both Brioschi and Sammartini, and Brioschi
evidently knew Sammartini’s music. He was a popular and prolific early
symphonist. Of the extant symphonies attributed to him, the authorship
of at least 51 appears to be certain; 22 of these can be dated to about
1741 or earlier, and three are among the earliest of all known dated
symphonies. These three works have connections with Casale Monferrato,
south-west of Milan. His music was especially popular in Paris, Prague,
Stockholm and Darmstadt. 29 works are listed in the Breitkopf catalogues
of 1762, 1763 and 1766.
German theologian, philosopher and composer. He was educated at the
Benedictine seminary in Ulm where he was ordained a priest in 1781.
Shortly afterwards he moved to the Benedictine abbey of Ochsenhausen
where he devoted himself to teaching theology and philosophy. In 1795
the abbot Romuald Weltin promoted him as a musical director in a
position he held until 1803. A versatile scholar and practitioner, in
1802 he contributed as a violinist to the performance of Joseph Haydn's
The Creation in Biberach under the conduction of Justin Heinrich Knecht.
During the period of secularization, he briefly served as deputy abbot
starting in 1803, later concluding his career as a parish priest in
Tannheim until his death. As a composer he wrote nearly one hundred
works, mainly religious music and most of them for choir with
instrumental accompaniment.
German composer. The eldest son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII
(1697-1745) and his wife, Maria Amalia of Austria (1701-1756), he was a
pupil of Francesco Peli. He played many instruments, and was a
composition pupil of Andrea Bernasconi from 1753. He was a patron of
chamber music and opera at the Munich court, and during his reign (begun
in 1747) Mozart's 'La finta giardiniera' received its première on 13
January 1775. Besides Andrea Bernasconi, Joseph Willibald Michl, Antonio
Sacchini, Pietro Pompeo Sales and Tommaso Traetta wrote carnival operas
for his court. His 'Concerti a più istromenti', performed at the
Accademia Filarmonica in Verona, and his finest composition, a Stabat
mater, were published at Verona at the instigation of
Joseph-Marie-Clément dall'Abaco in 1765-66. His works, mostly in
manuscript, include several symphonies and 12 trios for two violins and
bass. A Litany and three 'Sonate per il gallichona' were destroyed in
World War II; single parts only exist of a second Litany. A Missa
pastoralis and a Regina coeli are lost. His sister, the Princess Maria
Antonia Walpurgis (1724-1780), was also a composer.
German composer. He was the second of five children of the organist
Peter Hasse (c.1668-1737) and Christina Klessing, daughter of a mayor of
Bergedorf. He studied in Hamburg before joining the opera company
there. He quickly established himself as a tenor of reputation, but his
career changed when his opera 'Antioco' opened at Brunswick on 1 August
1721. Soon, he left Germany for a long tour of Venice, Bologna,
Florence, and Rome, finally settling in the major opera center of Naples
for six years, until 1730. There he studied with Alessandro Scarlatti
and possibly Nicolo Porpora, worked with the superstar castrato Carlo
Broschi (Farinelli), and his rise in Neapolitan opera was spectacular.
Hasse appeared in Venice for the 1730 Carnival season, a milestone of
his career. In his opera 'Artaserse', he set a libretto of Metastasio,
later to become his most important collaborator, for the first time. He
also met in Venice another famous singer, the mezzo-soprano Faustina
Bordoni (1697-1781), whom he married in June 1730 and who created many
of the female protagonists in his later operas. Sometime after Carnival
but before Ascension in 1730, he was granted the title of Kapellmeister
to the court of the Elector August I of Saxony at Dresden, but he and
Faustina Bordoni did not arrive there until 6 or 7 July 1731. Although
this appointment lasted until 1763, the couple took frequent and
substantial leaves of absence to various cities of Italy and Vienna to
produce operas that had been commissioned by the nobility of Europe. In
1745, King Frederick the Great of Prussia visited and heard Hasse’s Te
Deum and opera seria 'Arminio'.
The king, a fine musician, thereafter often invited the composer and his
wife to Potsdam. The Prussian bombardment of Hasse’s Dresden house in
1760, causing the loss of many manuscripts, may have soured this
relationship. Porpora, possibly Hasse’s teacher in Naples, was brought
to Dresden in 1748 to teach the Princess Maria Antonia of Saxony and was
given the title Kapellmeister, but Hasse was promoted to
Oberkapellmeister in 1750. In 1763, Hasse joined the imperial court in
Vienna where he worked closely with Metastasio. In 1775, he and Faustina
Bordoni retired to Venice. Although most of his work was quickly
forgotten after he died, while active, he was the most renowned composer
of Italian opera seria in Italy and German-speaking lands. He composed
at least 58 operas, mostly seria, but also a few comedies, which were
produced in many European opera centers. He was the favorite composer of
the age’s most eminent opera librettist, Metastasio. Hasse composed
fluently, with a particular gift for vocal melody, which he generally
displayed to full advantage without distraction from contrapuntal
textures. Besides the operas, he composed about 11 intermezzi, 11
Italian oratorios, 60 Italian chamber cantatas, and 33 more cantatas for
voice and orchestra. His instrumental music includes 54 concertos,
mostly for transverse flute and strings, and 24 trio sonatas. He also
composed sacred music, most of it for four-voiced choir and orchestra:
15 masses, 2 requiems, 36 single mass ordinary settings, 10 mass
offertories, 21 psalms, 18 antiphons, six hymns, and 38 motets for solo
voice and orchestra.
Jean-Baptiste Quentin (c.1700-c.1750)
- Sonata à quatre parties des 'Sonates en trio et à quatre parties
pour violons, flûtes traversières, viol et basse continue ... œuvre
VIII' (c.1737)
French violinist and composer. Almosth nothing is known about him. He
pursued his career in Paris, where he was a violinist at the Paris Opéra
in 1718, and in 1738 he played the viola in the ‘grand choeur’.
References to him indicate that he was a violinist of high reputation.
As a composer, he was prolific with numerous collections of solo and
trio sonatas, and few concertos (1724-1740). His brother, Bertin Quentin
(?-1767), was a violinist, cellist and composer.
Benedek Istvánffy (1733-1778)
- Messa (C-Dur) dedicata al patriarcha Santo Benedetto a 4tro vocal
2 vl., 2 ob., trombe, tympani, vlne. con organo conc[er]to.
Performers: Szilvia Hamvasi & Noémi Kiss (sopranos); Judit Németh
(mezzo-soprano); Péter Drucker (tenor); István Kovács & Pál Benkõ
(basses); Purcell Choir; Orfeo Orchestra; György Vashegyi (conductor)
Hungarian composer. Son of József Istvánffy (1703-1771), organist and
teacher of figural music at the Benedictine monastery of Szentmárton, he
received the first instruction in music from his father. He soon
obtaining the post of organist in the castle of Count Antal Széchényi,
in a post he held at least until 1761. It was during that period when he
got married to Katalin Kőmíves and later born his only daugther
Franziska Istvánffy (1756-1816). In 1766 he became succentor at the
cathedral in Győr and from 1773 to 1775 he was also responsible for
leading the choir of the Jesuit church there, in a posts he held until
his death. As a composer, he mainly wrote sacred works, among them, the
'Missa sanctificabis annum quinquagesimum vel Sanctae Dorotheae' (1774)
and the 'Messa dedicata al patriarcha Santo Benedetto'. His music style
was close to the composers which he was in touch during his lifespan,
among them, Gregor Joseph Werner, Franz Josef Aumann, Joseph
Krottendorfer and Christoph Sonnleithner.
Bohemian keyboardist and composer. He studied piano at age five and
organ at age nine, and then became a chorister at the Iglau Minorite
church and a pupil at the Jesuit Gymnasium. After further studies at the
Kuttenberg Jesuit Gymnasium, he continued his studies at Prague's New
City Gymnasium (1776-77) and at the University of Prague (1778). He
found a patron in Count Manner, with whose assistance he was able to go
to Malines in 1779, where he became active as a piano teacher. He made
his public debut there as a pianist on 16 December 1779, and then set
out on a highly successful tour, visiting Bergen op Zoom, Amsterdam, and
The Hague. He then went to Hamburg, where he gave a concert on 12 July
1782, and also met C.P.E. Bach, with whom he may have studied. In 1783
he played at the St. Petersburg court. After spending about a year in
the service of Prince Karl Radziwill as Kapellmeister in Lithuania, he
made a major tour of Germany in 1784, winning notable acclaim in Berlin,
Mainz, Kassel, and Frankfurt am Main as a piano and glass harmonica
virtuoso. In 1786 he went to Paris, where he performed at the court for
Marie Antoinette; except for a brief trip to Milan and Bohemia, he
remained in Paris until the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789
compelled him to flee to London. On 1 June 1789, he made his London
debut at the Hanover Square Rooms. He soon became successful as a
pianist and teacher in the British capital, appearing regularly at
Salomon's concerts and being an active participant in these concerts
during Joseph Haydn's two visits. In 1792 he married the singer,
pianist, and harpist Sophia Corri (1775-1847).
With his father-in-law, Domenico Corri, he became active as a music
publisher. Both men were ill suited for such a venture, however, and
Dussek's love for the good life further contributed to the failure of
the business. Dussek fled to Hamburg in 1799, leaving his father-in-law
to serve a jail sentence for debt. He apparently never saw his wife or
daughter again. He seems to have spent about two years in Hamburg, where
he was active as a performer and teacher. In 1802 he played in his
birthplace, and then in Prague. From 1804 to 1806 he served as
Kapellmeister to Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia. After the latter's
death at the battle of Saalfeld (10 October 1806), he composed a piano
sonata in his memory, the 'Elegie harmonique sur la mort du Prince Louis
Ferdinand de Prusse', Op.61. He then was briefly in the service of
Prince Isenburg. In 1807 he settled in Paris, where he served Prince
Talleyrand, gave concerts, and taught. His health began to fail due to
excessive drinking, and he was compelled to abandon his career. Jan
Ladislav Dussek was a remarkable composer for the piano, proving himself
a master craftsman capable of producing the most brilliant works for
the instrument. In his later works he presaged the development of the
Romantic school, anticipating such composers as Chopin, Mendelssohn,
Schumann, and even Brahms. As a celebrated virtuoso of the keyboard, he
shares with Muzio Clementi the honor of having introduced the 'singing
touch'. As a composer, his works include, among others, 15 concertos, 34
sonatas for the fortepiano, 68 violin sonatas, six harp sonatas
(possibly a legacy of an alleged affair with Anne-Marie Krumpholtz), six
canzonetts, three string quartets, a Mass (1807), and three harp
concertos.
English composer and organist. Nothing is known of his origins. The
earliest evidence was as a chorister at the Chapel Royal when James II
was crowned in 1685. By 1692, he had been appointed organist at
Winchester College, and on 6 June 1699, he was appointed vicar-choral at
St. Paul’s Cathedral. He moved up to organist in January 1704. On 15
May 1704, Francis Pigott, organist at the Chapel Royal, died, and
together with William Croft were sworn in as joint organists to replace
him. It appears that he ended his own life, perhaps owing to an unhappy
love affair, by shooting himself on 1 December 1707. As a composer, he
wrote 22 anthems, 10 odes, 2 settings of the Te Deum, 2 suites for wind
band, 2 suites for harpsichord, over 40 other short works for
harpsichord, and the incidental music for 8 plays. He was a leading
composer of the generation immediately junior to Purcell. He wrote the
so-called Trumpet Voluntary, his best-known piece.
French bassoonist and composer. He was a pupil of his brother Michel
Joseph Gebauer (1763-1812) and of François Devienne. In 1788 he became a
member of the band of the Swiss Guard in his native city. In 1790 he
settled in Paris as a musician in the National Guard. After playing in
theater orchestras, he joined the orchestra of the Opera about 1799,
remaining in it until 1826. He also played in the Imperial chapel
orchestra until 1830, and was a professor at the Conservatoire
(1795-1802; 1824-1838). According to some sources, he was made an
honorary professor in 1816. As a composer, his output include 13 bassoon
concertos, eight symphonies concertantes and several chamber music. He
also published a bassoon method (c.1820). His younger brothers, Pierre
Paul Gebauer (1775-?) and Etienne Jean François Gebauer (1776-1823) were
also musicians.
Spanish composer. Although his early biography remains obscure, archival
evidence from 1690 suggests he held a musical post in Lugo before being
appointed maestro de capilla at Mondoñedo Cathedral later that year. In
February 1694, following a competitive examination process
(oposiciones), he relocated to Tuy Cathedral to succeed Tomás Portillo, a
position he held until his death. His tenure in Tuy was marked by his
dual role as a priest and educator of the 'infantes del coro', though
his health began to decline significantly after 1730. Academically, he
is noted for his conservative liturgical style; his surviving output,
primarily preserved in Tuy and Mondoñedo, consists of approximately 50
works characterized by traditional 'facistol' (choirbook) polyphony and
the occasional use of cantus firmus. While his stylistic identity is
occasionally obscured by issues of attribution within the cathedral
archives, he remains a representative figure of the ecclesiastical
musical tradition in Spain during the early 18th century.
Bohemian composer and keyboardist. Following early instruction from his
father, a local cantor, he fled to Vienna to escape Prussian troops
during the War of the Austrian Succession, eventually acquiring Count
Schlick as his patron. He became a favorite pupil of Georg Christoph
Wagenseil, under whose tutelage he achieved a reputation as one of the
best keyboardists in Vienna. He was appointed as instructor to
princesses Maria Carolina and Maria Antonia (later Marie Antoinette). In
1775 he was forced to retire due to failing eyesight, though he
retained his salary. The remainder of his life was spent as a guest in
the various salons of the city, where his Lieder (most of which were
published) were popular. As a composer, his music conforms to the
conventions of the style prevalent in Vienna of the period. These
include two Masses (and a Requiem), seven hymns, numerous other smaller
sacred works, one oratorio, 79 Lieder, 47 keyboard
sonatas/divertimentos, 224 other individual works for the keyboard
(including cadenzas), 12 symphonies, 45 concertos for the keyboard,
seven piano trios, a violin sonata, and two piano quartets. His music
remains largely unexplored.
Austrian composer, organist, and pedagogue. After attending the Lutheran
Gymnasium in Oedenburg (Sopron), he continued his studies in Breslau
(Wrocław) in 1663 and subsequently spent three years at the University
of Wittenberg. He served as rector and cantor in Rust by 1667 but fled
to Regensburg in 1674 due to religious persecution, where he remained as
a music teacher until 1685. Upon returning to Oedenburg, he was
appointed music director at the Gymnasium and served as organist and
Kapellmeister until 1720. His pedagogical career included teaching at
primary schools from 1704 and providing private instruction to over 50
pupils, including the sons of Prince Paul Esterházy, until 1721. In
1689, he compiled a virginal book containing 56 pieces for his student
Johann Jacob Starck. While Wohlmuth was a central figure in the musical
life of Oedenburg, only a small portion of his compositions, primarily
sacred works, is extant.
German composer. The second surviving son of Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685-1750) and his first wife, Maria Barbara Bach (1684-1720), he was
baptized on 10 March 1714, with Georg Philipp Telemann as one of his
godfathers. In 1717 he moved with the family to Cöthen, where his father
had been appointed Kapellmeister. His mother died in 1720, and in
spring 1723 the family moved to Leipzig, where he began attending the
Thomasschule as a day-boy on 14 June 1723. J.S. Bach said later that one
of his reasons for accepting the post of Kantor at the Thomasschule was
that his sons’ intellectual development suggested that they would
benefit from a university education. He received his musical training
from his father, who gave him keyboard and organ lessons. From the age
of about 15 he took part in his father’s musical performances in church
and in the collegium musicum. He appears relatively seldom as a copyist,
no doubt because, as an able musician himself, he was usually excused
such duties. The one large-scale work of sacred music in Leipzig mainly
copied by him is the anonymous St Luke Passion (BWV 246), obviously
arranged by J.S. Bach to an urgent deadline for Good Friday 1730. On 1
October 1731 he matriculated at Leipzig University. Following his
godfather’s example, he studied law, although he was obviously destined
for a musical career. His first compositions were probably written about
1730. They consisted mainly of keyboard pieces and chamber music.
Deciding to become a musician, he was recommended to Crown Prince
Frederick in Rheinsburg, and upon the crown prince’s crowning as
Frederick II of Prussia, he moved to Berlin as a chamber musician, a
formal title granted in 1746. As an active member of the Berlin School,
he participated in the intimate inner circle of musicians and writers of
the period, producing a seminal treatise on keyboard playing, 'Versuch
über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen' (1752). The death of his
godfather Telemann in 1767 offered him the opportunity to seek the
appointment as city Kapellmeister in Hamburg (a post that was
temporarily occupied by Georg Michael Telemann).
From 1768 to his death, he was the leading musician in the city, whose
friendship with major literary figures such as Friedrich Gottlob
Klopstock and Johann Heinrich Voss, his pedagogical efforts at the
Johanneum, and the maintaining of his close ties to colleagues in Berlin
made him one of the most prominent figures in music of the period. Over
the course of his long career, he composed almost 900 works in all
genres save opera (and there is an indication that he may have made an
abortive attempt at one). One of the main figures in the emerging
empfindsamer Stil (Empfindsamkeit) with its emphasis upon emotion and
drama in music, he created compositions that were far ahead of his time
in terms of harmony and form. For example, the introduction to the
oratorio 'Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu' is both monophonic and
atonal, while his free fantasies move rapidly from tonal center to tonal
center using sometimes harsh dissonance, extreme changes in tempo and
dynamics, and effective musical moods, all without metrical regularity.
Ludwig van Beethoven lauded him as his spiritual father, and almost all
other composers of the period imitated his style. He published works,
such as the Klopstock’s Morgengesang, by subscription, having control
over much of his own creative output. His compositions include 370
miscellaneous works for keyboard, 69 keyboard concertos), 11 flute
concertos, 19 symphonies, two keyboard quartets, six pieces for
Harmoniemusik, 37 sonatas for various instruments, 48 trio sonatas, 30
pieces for musical clockwork, 277 songs and secular cantatas, a
Magnificat, two Psalms, 22 Passions/Passion cantatas, an oratorio, 13
large-scale choruses, an ode, 14 chorales, four Easter cantatas, 26
pieces for Hamburg celebrations, and nine cantatas. He was the most
important composer in Protestant Germany during the second half of the
18th century, and enjoyed unqualified admiration and recognition
particularly as a teacher and keyboard composer.
Italian violinist and composer. Son of the horn player Giovanni Carlo
Manfredi, he received his early education at the seminary school of San
Michele in Foro in Lucca before studying with Domenico Ferrari in Genoa
and Pietro Nardini in Livorno. He was a supernumerary violinist in the
Cappella Palatina and was appointed first violinist in 1758. He also
played in theatres, served as chief instrumentalist for religious
functions and taught. After playing in a quartet with Nardini and
Giuseppe Cambini in 1765, he formed a duo with Luigi Boccherini and
began a concert tour which took him first to Paris in 1768 then Madrid,
to the court of the Prince of the Asturias, where he was appointed first
violin of the chamber music. He returned to Italy in 1772 and was
re-admitted to the Cappella Palatina only in 1773. However, he fell ill
in 1775, and his concert appearances became much less frequent. He died
two years later. As a composer, he only left a few works, including a
set of six sonatas for violin and bass (1769), a chamber trio, and some
religious works. He was regarded as a violinist of technical and
expressive brilliance, and he retained his reputation until the middle
of the 19th century. His brothers, Pietro Luigi Manfredi (1744-?) and
Vincenzo Ferrerio Manfredi (1732-?), were a horn player and a flautist,
respectively.
German violinist and composer. Almost nothing is known about him. Born
into a musical family, he studied in Venice before joining the Würzburg
court chapel under Prince-Bishop Adam Friedrich von Seinsheim, a
position he held for the rest of his life. As a composer, his extant
output includes two symphonies, two concertos, various quartets and
trios, as well as songs and keyboard sonatas. The family’s musical
legacy was furthered by his sons, Joseph Küffner (1776-1856) and Johann
Joseph Baptist Küffner (1770-1833), and his cousin Georg Joseph Küffner
(1747-1779), who was also a violinist.
Austrian composer and oboist. Son of Josef Malzat (1723-1760), he
studied with his father. In 1774 he obtained a position as oboist in the
court orchestra in Salzburg, becoming a student of Johann Michael
Haydn. In 1778 he toured central Europe before settling in Bolzano, but
in 1788 he obtained the post of principal oboe at the court of the
Prince-Archbishop of Passau. As a composer, his extant works include
concertos for cello, oboe, two oboes, and oboe and bassoon. He also left
a sextet, a quintet, a cassation and three wind partitas. His music
reflects the style of his teacher, but it has been little studied. His
brother Johann Michael Malzat (1749-1787) was a cellist and composer.
German organist and composer, active in Sweden. The son of a
schoolmaster and church organist in Klein-Schmalkalden, he received his
first musical education with the Schmalkalden organist Johann Gottfried
Vierling. He studied in Leipzig from 1776, and then worked as a music
conductor in theatres in Frankfurt am Main and Hamburg (1778-80). In
1781, he moved to Stockholm at the invitation of the German congregation
there (Tyska kyrkan) to assume the position of organist, which he held
until 1793. The same year, he was employed at the Royal Theatre in
Stockholm as well as conductor of the orchestra for the Stenborg
theatres. In 1786 he was appointed assistant conductor of the Royal
Orchestra (hovkapellet) and from 1795 to 1807 he held the post of
hovkapellmästare. He was also an instructor at Dramatens elevskola. He
was married twice, first to the Swedish actress and singer Elisabeth
Forsselius. Since king Gustaf IV Adolf closed the Royal Opera and its
orchestra in 1807, he moved to Uppsala, where he 1808 was appointed
Director musices of the university and simultaneously was employed as
organist of the cathedral. In Uppsala he organized the studentsång
(four-voice male choir singing). This practice rapidly spread to the
other Nordic universities and is still today a coveted tradition, not
only among university students, but for the last century also in many
male choirs all over Sweden. Hæffner's passion and work for this has
rendered him the name Studentsångens fader. As a composer, he wrote
three operas, among them the well-known 'Electra', theatre music, a
mass, one symphony (1795), three Overtures (c.1798-1823), keyboard and
chamber works, songs with piano accompaniment, and was responsible for
the new Swedish chorale book in 1819. Noteworthy is his oratorio
'Försonaren på Golgatha'. His music is heavily influenced by the German
Sturm und Drang.
Italian composer and organist. Nothing is known about his early years.
He may have been appointed to his first musical position at the age of
17, at San Pietro, Guastalla, serving Ferrante III, Duke of Guastalla.
After his ordination to the priesthood he became maestro di cappella and
organist of San Andrea, Mantua, in 1641. In 1648 he was appointed the
same post at the Accademia della Morte in Ferrara and at the church of
Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo in 1653. He returned to his old job in
Ferrara in April 1657 and then was elected to the post where he would
make his reputation, maestro di cappella at San Petronio, Bologna, in
late 1657. He instituted a regular choir of 35 singers and a group of
well-paid instrumentalists for the liturgy at San Petronio, but despite
the audible improvements he made and the reputation he built, his tenure
there was marked by politically motivated controversies over the syntax
in his sacred compositions. The vestry supported him, but he was
finally forced out in June 1671. He went to Mantua to serve the Gonzaga
family as maestro di cappella di camera and the cathedral as maestro di
cappella in a post he held the rest of his life. As a composer, he
reformed the 'cappella musicale' at the church of San Petronio in
Bologna and established its reputation as a center of excellent music in
general and as the origin of the sonata for trumpet and strings in
particular with his Opus 35 (1665). He published 10 volumes of
instrumental music, including the first violin sonatas published by a
San Petronio composer, his Opus 55 (1670). There are also 10 volumes of
secular vocal music, 4 lost operas, 11 lost oratorios, and 46 volumes of
sacred music.
